A Hard C O RE History Investigation
Examining the Grievances
of the
Declaration of independence
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“ultimate break-up letter” lesson for
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Name______________________ Class ___________ Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the
declaration of independence come up with the
Grievances?
Bell Ringer
Here’s an activity that always hooks students into the antiquated
wording of the Declaration of Independence. As soon as the bell rings,
inform the class in a serious tone that you have found a note that
someone left behind. Declare that it is your policy to read any note
passed in class and will proceed to do so. At the end of letter, ask the
class if they think you should expose the author. Then declare the author
as the Thirteen Colonies! Here’s a video clip of how it works in action:
http://bit.ly/PVhUmY
I don’t know how to say it but its been rough these past eight months. We’ve been
arguing for quite some time now and based on what you’ve said its clear that you
have no respect for me. And I want this school year to go smoothly.
That’s why I’ve decided it would be best if we broke up. I can no longer revolve my
life around you and follow all of your controlling rules. It’s been going on for too
long.
Here’s a list of other things you did wrong if you can’t remember!
1) You had your immature friends constantly stalking me because you thought I
was cheating on you, which couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
2) You did not allow me to see my friends because you thought they were a bad
influence.
3) You tried to start fights between me and my friends.
4) You always made up stupid rules for me about where I could go and what I
could do without even asking how I felt!
5) And the list could go on and on and on!
I have asked you many times to stop your idiotic ways, but you never listened or
cared. You probably should have; because you just lost the best girl you’ve ever had!
Love,
13 Colonies
Name______________________ Class ___________ Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the
declaration of independence come up with the
Grievances?
HardCORE History Art Gallery Activity
In your groups of 3-4, you will be rotating every 3 minutes to a different art
source hanging around the room. For each of the 6 Revolutionary era sources, fill
out the chart information below.
Sources
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
Source 4
Source 5
Source 6
Predict how this source
may relate to “breaking
up” with Great Britain.
What is one question you
have about this source?
Source #1
Source #2
Source #3
Source #4
Source #5
Source #6
Name______________________ Class ___________ Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the
declaration of independence come up with the
Grievances?
In total, 56 representatives from 13
different colonies signed the Declaration
of Independence. Although these men
held differing views on a number of issues
during the Revolutionary era, they shared
some common ideas that influenced the
list of grievances— or complaints—in the
Declaration. First, they believed that their
mother country, Great Britain, had been
committing actions that were very
harmful to American colonists for over a
decade. Perhaps just as important, the
vast majority of those who took part in
the Continental Congress believed in the
Enlightenment, a movement that
emphasized the equality of all people and
questioned the legitimacy of governments
who abused the citizens they governed.
Specific Enlightenment ideas such as the
social contract and natural rights
affected how many colonists viewed the
recent actions of the British government.
According to the social contract theory,
governments only held legitimate power
if the people they governed were being
treated with fairness. If this social
contract was broken, the citizens could
justifiably their life savings were now
penniless. The Stock Market Crash
signaled the beginning of the Great
Depression. At its peak in 1933, the
Great Depression led to the
unemployment of about 14 million
people and the failure of half of the
banks in America. Not until the efforts
of the New Deal and the fighting of
WWII would America return to its
former prosperity.
justifiably overthrow their government. The
idea of natural rights held that all people
held God-given rights they were born with
like the right to life, privacy, property,
happiness and more. No government had the
authority to strip these natural rights away
without good reason. For today’s
investigation, we will be closely reading some
of the grievances in the Declaration of
Independence and determining how our
Founding Fathers came to the conclusion it
was best if the American Colonies and Great
Britain “break up” forever.
Name______________________ Class ___________ Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the
declaration of independence come up with the
Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation
Below are just 6 of the 28 grievances listed in Thomas Jefferson’s
original draft of the Declaration of Independence. The final version of the
DOI would remove grievance #28, making 27
(14) For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.
(16) For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.
(17) For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.
(24) He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns,
and destroyed the lives of our people.
(27) He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless
Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions..
(28) He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's
most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people
who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in
another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation
hither.
Name______________________ Class ___________ Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the
declaration of independence come up with the
Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation
Below are just 6 of the 28 modified grievances listed in Thomas
Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence. The final
version of the DOI would remove grievance #28.
(14) For allowing large bodies of armed troops to live among us and in
our houses.
(16) For cutting off our commercial business and trade with all parts of
the world.
(17) For forcing us to pay taxes that we never agreed to.
(24) The King’s troops have plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts,
burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
(27) The King has caused trouble amongst us, and has recruited
merciless Indian Savages, who are known for their cruel warfare against
all, including the innocent, women and children of our country.
(28) The King has waged cruel war against human nature itself,
violating the sacred rights of life and liberty in the cases of many
Africans, capturing and carrying them into slavery, or by killing them
due to the miserable conditions of the ships on which they are
transported.
Name______________________ Class ___________ Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the
declaration of independence come up with the
Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation
Pick any 3 of the 6 grievances we read together and fill
out the chart below for those grievances you choose.
How does this grievance reflect
Social Contract or Natural Rights
ideas? Explain in at least two
complete sentences!
Grievance # ______
(Write out grievance
below)
Grievance # ______
(Write out grievance
below)
Grievance # _______
(Write out grievance
below)
What historical source helps
explain this grievance? How?
Explain in at least two complete
sentences.
Name______________________ Class ___________ Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the
declaration of independence come up with the
Grievances?
Exit Ticket
Answer the essential question above in at least five sentences. Do NOT use
any of the worksheets or materials used in class today! Use your memory
to answer the question!
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Source #1
This 1770 print produced by Paul Revere depicts the Boston Massacre with a decidedly antiBritish slant. The British are shown gunning down the American colonists with little hesitation
and no indication that they had been actually provoked by rock throwing, club-wielding
Bostonians. This source helps explain some of the fundamental reasons for declaring
independence in 1776: the British standing army in America. Many Bostonians, including
Revere, were upset with not only the killing of American shown here, but also with the fact that
King George III ordered British troops to be stationed in Boston during peacetime. This enraged
many Bostonians due to the fact that many of the British troops competed for jobs with many
of the city’s working class residents and the troops helped enforce unpopular taxes and rules
handed down by the Crown.
Source #2
This 1774 engraving displays the tarring and feathering of a British agent collecting taxes. With
an obvious anti-Colonist slant, the image hints at two very unpopular taxes levied by the British
Crown during the pre-Revolutionary War period. The paper on the “Liberty Tree” reads “Stamp
Act” upside down. Moreover, tea is not only being poured down the throat of the tax collector,
but crates of tea are being dumped off the boat in the harbor in the background in obvious
defiance of the Tea Act. American colonist considered both taxes as unjust due to the fact they
had no say in whether they were imposed or not.
Source #3
The graphic political cartoon shown here was actually produced during the War of 1812, but the
practice of scalping by Native Americans during the American Revolution was common. Whether
or not the British actually paid bounties for the scalps of enemies is still a subject of debate, but
American colonists did believe that the “Redcoats” were paying their Indian allies for proof of
their atrocities. American colonists decried the British decision to ally with Native Americans at
the onset of the American Revolution. The fact that their mother country would employ
“savages” to pillage American towns and murder innocents was considered heartless behavior.
Source #4
This contemporary painting reveals a common scene during the pre-Revolutionary War period. A
colonial family in their home are forced to allow British troops to reside with them. The
Quartering Act of 1765 mandated that all colonists provide housing and food to soldiers
stationed in the colonies. This law obviously upset many Americans, not just because of the
financial burden of quartering troops but also because it violated their rights of privacy.
Source #5
Although this diagram was produced more than a decade after the Declaration of Independence,
this shocking sketch of the British slave ship named the Brookes displays the horrendous
conditions of African slaves during the transatlantic voyage to the Americas. Despite many of the
Founding Fathers’ connections to slave labor, many of them publicly and privately deplored
America’s reliance upon it. Thomas Jefferson—a large slave owner himself—was strongly opposed
to the transatlantic slave trade.
Source #6
This is actually another engraving done by Paul Revere in 1775 demonstrating the scene at
Boston Harbor after the Boston Port Act of 1774 was put into effect. A debilitating law for
many Boston merchants, the Port Act effectively banned all commercial dealings by boat and
crippled the city economically. Revere actually numbers the British boats enforcing the Port Act
and provides a list of ship names off to the left.
Name______________________ Class ___________ Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the
declaration of independence come up with the
Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation
Pick any 3 of the 6 grievances we read together and fill
out the chart below for those grievances you choose.
Grievance # 14
He has kept among us, in
times of peace, Standing
Armies without the
Consent of our legislatures.
Grievance # 16
For cutting off our Trade
with all parts of the
world.
Grievance # 17
For imposing Taxes on us
without our Consent.
How does this grievance reflect
Social Contract or Natural Rights
ideas? Explain in at least two
complete sentences!
What historical source helps
explain this grievance? How?
Explain in at least two complete
sentences.
The presence of a standing army
and the quartering of troops in
people’s houses would be a
violation of the natural right to
privacy. Many colonists believed
that they should not have to
house soldiers in their homes, let
alone their town. Also, this could
be considered a violation of the
Social Contract due to the fact
that the British were doing this
without Americans’ consent.
This grievance reflects beliefs in
Natural Rights. By the British
cutting off commercial business by
Americans they were denying
colonists the right to pursue
happiness and property.
Historical source 4 helps explain
the grievance. It displays a scene
of a family being forced to
quarter troops in their home.
This grievance reflects a belief in
the Social Contract. Without the
consent of the people, the British
government imposed taxes, a
clear violation of the people’s trust
and power.
Source 2 helps explain this
grievance. The image
demonstrates the mood of
colonists towards these taxes
they considered highly unjust.
Source 6 helps explain this
grievance. The image shows
British ships shutting off the port
of Boston, disallowing trade by
sea.
Name______________________ Class ___________ Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the
declaration of independence come up with the
Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation
Pick any 3 of the 6 grievances we read together and fill
out the chart below for those grievances you choose.
How does this grievance reflect
Social Contract or Natural Rights
ideas? Explain in at least two
complete sentences!
What historical source helps
explain this grievance? How?
Explain in at least two complete
sentences.
Grievance # 24
He has plundered our seas,
ravaged our Coasts, burnt our
towns, and destroyed the lives
of our people.
This particular grievance is a clear
reflection of Natural Rights ideas. The
colonists show here that they believe that
the natural right to life, property, and
happiness are cherished.
Historical source 1 best explains this
grievance. Paul Revere’s depiction of the
“Boston Massacre” shows British troops
literally destroying the lives of
American colonists.
Grievance # 27
He has excited domestic
insurrections amongst us, and
has endeavored to bring on the
inhabitants of our frontiers, the
merciless Indian Savages, whose
known rule of warfare, is an
undistinguished destruction of
all ages, sexes and conditions.
This grievance reflects Natural Rights
ideas. The colonists deemed that Native
American warriors recruited by the
British had no respect for the right of
life and property.
Source 3 helps explain this grievance.
The cartoon illustrates many colonists
beliefs about cruel warfare of Native
warriors and the British support of
such violent tactics.
Grievance # 28
He has waged cruel war against
human nature itself, violating
it's most sacred rights of life
and liberty in the persons of a
distant people who never
offended him, captivating and
carrying them into slavery in
another hemisphere, or to incur
miserable death in their
transportation hither.
This grievance reflects beliefs in natural
rights. Despite many colonists adherence
to slavery, some believed that Africans
possessed “sacred rights of life and
liberty.”
Source 5 helps explain this grievance.
The sketched diagram displays the
horrible, cramped conditions of a slave
being transported to America.
Name______________________ Class ___________ Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the
declaration of independence come up with the
Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation
Rubric Checklist for Exit Ticket
_____/4 pts total
1) Answers the essential question thoroughly and in the
appropriate amount of sentences.
___/2 pts
Comments:
2) The answer demonstrates understanding of the
research conducted and proper application of evidence
found in historical sources.
____/2 pts
Comments: